{"id":844611,"date":"2026-09-11T22:38:12","date_gmt":"2026-09-11T22:38:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/844611\/"},"modified":"2026-09-11T22:38:12","modified_gmt":"2026-09-11T22:38:12","slug":"man-arrested-in-connection-with-death-of-tasia-fortune-in-mississippi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/844611\/","title":{"rendered":"Man arrested in connection with death of Tasia Fortune in Mississippi"},"content":{"rendered":"

A man has been arrested in the death of Tasia Fortune, the 29-year-old Black woman who was found hanging from a tree in Mississippi last month, police announced Friday.<\/p>\n

Jacques Ratliff was arrested Friday afternoon and will be charged with homicide, Jackson Police Chief Dr. RaShall Brackney told reporters. She said he had an \u201cassociation\u201d to Fortune, but did not disclose what kind.<\/p>\n

Fortune\u2019s body was discovered Aug. 3 behind an abandoned building in Jackson. Her family had previously said they did not believe Fortune died by suicide. The case sparked widespread alarm and media attention given Mississippi\u2019s sordid history with racial violence. <\/p>\n

Her death was officially classified as a homicide Thursday evening, Brackney said. That determination led police to secure two search warrants and an arrest warrant for Ratliff, she said. <\/p>\n

\"ALeaves reflect on the glass of photograph of Tasia Fortune at a makeshift memorial on Aug. 10, in Jackson, Miss. Sophie Bates \/ AP file<\/p>\n

Investigators served the search warrants Friday, but Ratliff was not found at the location. Officers heading back to headquarters later found him walking along Capitol Street, and took him into custody, Brackney said. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe arrest today is an important development in this investigation, but it is not the conclusion. This case remains active, and additional arrests will be pending as our investigators continue to follow the evidence wherever it leads,\u201d she said, adding \u201cbecause Tasia and her children deserve nothing less.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brackney said the Fortune family was notified immediately of the arrest. <\/p>\n

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.<\/p>\n

Marlene Lenthang is a breaking news reporter for NBC News Digital.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A man has been arrested in the death of Tasia Fortune, the 29-year-old Black woman who was found…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":844612,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4,450,451,3,452,453],"class_list":["post-844611","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/844611","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=844611"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/844611\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/844612"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=844611"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=844611"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=844611"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}